S2FM overview and information.

[ConfederateJoe]

I did a lot of playing with the new version of SFM available in the Dota 2 Reborn workshop tools. I would like to share my findings.

1. Converting models is now incredibly easy. The model assembly tool is great and simple and it makes it super easy to create body and material groups. .obj .fbx and .smd all worked. It seemed that using .smd gave the most successful results especially in the area of rigs, but I use blender and someone who uses an autodesk program might find .fbx to be better. There seem to be less limitations than before. You will also assemble your materials and animations here. The model will QUICKLY compile into a vmdl.

2. Materials can now be constituted of .jpeg, .png, or .tga image types, the material file is now 1 compiled vmat. The material editor is extremely easy and intuitive. Simply choose a shader, add some properties, textures, move some sliders, and you're done! Changes you make to your material will update the real-time preview.

3. Both the model and material editor can be accessed at any time for modification. These changes will propagate to S2FM. S2FM actually provides options to access these directly for whatever model you're working with

4. S2FM is MUCH faster on the new engine and 64bit. This means more polys, no light-shadow limit, less slowdowns, much faster rendering, somewhat higher fidelity rendering, light, shadows, and larger scenes.

5. Lights no longer have shadow map filter, use the radius slider for soft, more realistic shadows. The overall detail in the shadow maps seems to be higher without being too sharp. Lights now have a roundness option that let you change from a round to a square light. An effective penumbra option has been added. Volumes are now much faster.

6. Ambient occlusion is gone for the time being as a new and improved version that should look better and render faster is in development.

7. Bone scaling is gone for the time being as a scale manipulator is being worked on.

8. Viewports now support custom resolution for optimal workspace.

9. IK rigging is now done inside of SFM. Right now it's a bit rough, but eventually there will be a wizard of types to configure and save rigs.

10. You can convert bsp maps by decompiling them, moving the materials to your source 2 mod, opening the decompiled file in the new hammer and then recompiling.

11. using 512 and 1024 DoF samples now gives shadows depth. DoF and motion blur are faster.

12. New particle editor is much simpler and much more advanced.

13. Rendering now supports up to 4k by default as well as a custom resolution. Exporting formats have been improved.


That's what I've found thus far. This version of SFM will be receiving updates regularly and there are apparently several more planned features

[Bop]

My project file itself is 150MB. nope.avi.

[Detonatress]

This sounds good so far. I'll almost surely move over once I'm done with my current project. By that time, S2FM will most likely be fully functional.

[Bop]

For those wondering whether they should convert, here's the main question you should be asking: Does my final picture look good so far? Do I need better technology to improve?

[ConfederateJoe]

I will be moving completely over as soon as the new ambient occlusion makes it in. It's the much easier model importing and superfast-ness that does it for me.

Also, forgot to mention but there will eventually be a workshop for it.

[Detonatress]

ClinterinoM0 | C: の投稿を引用：

For those wondering whether they should convert, here's the main question you should be asking: Does my final picture look good so far? Do I need better technology to improve?

How about: "Do I want to wait ages for something to load/find something when I could get it faster and with (hopefully) no loss in quality (or better quality)?"

[Paintbrush Poltergeist]

I'm mad jealous that SFM doesn't have all those snazzy features.

[Bop]

Detonatress の投稿を引用：

ClinterinoM0 | C: の投稿を引用：

For those wondering whether they should convert, here's the main question you should be asking: Does my final picture look good so far? Do I need better technology to improve?

How about: "Do I want to wait ages for something to load/find something when I could get it faster and with (hopefully) no loss in quality (or better quality)?"

Really depends on the project. Some larger projects would probably take more time to convert than actual load times you'll experience in the original SFM.

[ConfederateJoe]

Regardless of converting time, I know what I'll be using for my Saxxy.

[Zappy]

Wait, has DMX support been dropped for models? Why'd they do that?

[ConfederateJoe]

Vintage の投稿を引用：

Wait, has DMX support been dropped for models? Why'd they do that?

Yeah, as far as I could tell, I tried with a .DMX and it gave me errors.
I don't know why.

What I do know is that vmdls have much less limitations.

[Zappy]

ConfederateJoe の投稿を引用：

Yeah, as far as I could tell, I tried with a .DMX and it gave me errors.
I don't know why.
What I do know is that vmdls have much less limitations.

Well, either way, thank you for this overview thing. I'm just gonna wait for the Blender Source Tools to be updated, then.

[ConfederateJoe]

Vintage の投稿を引用：

ConfederateJoe の投稿を引用：

Yeah, as far as I could tell, I tried with a .DMX and it gave me errors.
I don't know why.
What I do know is that vmdls have much less limitations.

Well, either way, thank you for this overview thing. I'm just gonna wait for the Blender Source Tools to be updated, then.

No problem, Vintage!

Also...

14. The new Hammer is awesome, period.

[Detonatress]

ClinterinoM0 | C: の投稿を引用：

Detonatress の投稿を引用：

How about: "Do I want to wait ages for something to load/find something when I could get it faster and with (hopefully) no loss in quality (or better quality)?"

Really depends on the project. Some larger projects would probably take more time to convert than actual load times you'll experience in the original SFM.

Ah I thought you meant just switch over for future projects, not move an already-existing project over.
If I understand correctly, Blender to S2FM should be much easier and I'd not have to go through a lot of stuff just to port a model over to S2FM.

[Zappy]

By the way, can some-one confirm whether there is a Z-up option for making VALVe Models? That time in the DotA 2 Workshop Tools alpha thing long ago, I did try importing a cartoon horse model, and it imported as Y-up, while the meshes are made for Z-up.

[Keepon older (5/19)]

ConfederateJoe の投稿を引用：

Vintage の投稿を引用：

Wait, has DMX support been dropped for models? Why'd they do that?

Yeah, as far as I could tell, I tried with a .DMX and it gave me errors.
I don't know why.

What I do know is that vmdls have much less limitations.

(crossposting this from my sfm facepunch thread reply)

http://i.imgur.com/SjdwECy.png
http://i.imgur.com/cKmuMNg.png

Blender Source Tools can export VALID .DMX files compatible with Source2 (since dota2 wokshop Tools Alpha!).

Just change "Engine Path:" to folder containing "resourcecompiler.exe" instead of "studiomdl" (for now it's "path_to_steam_folder\ steamapps\common\dota 2 beta\game\bin\win64\ ") and exported .dmx should be in Source2 compatible format

<!-- dmx encoding binary 5 format model 22 -->

"Target Up Axis:" has to be set to "Y" (or Y-up, as it's probably called)

One note though, shapekeys/flexes/morphs(or whatever they call them) works as long as you don't mark them as Stereo ones (that means no left/right slider )
All morphs controllers marked as Stereo are listed in 'Morph , but sliders won't do anything on the model.
I'm not sure if it's either BleST or Valve fault for it not to work

to prove that .dmx has proper bone skinning and regular/'mono' morphs are working here's a picture
http://i.imgur.com/SAbjohS.png
Light's new "Radius" slider is awesome.
I wish they could backport "Custom Resolution/Aspect Ratio" to S1FM though :/

since "June 30, 2015" update, full recompiling those models gives me this warning for each morph:

[ W ResourceCompilerSystem ]: ERROR!! Found 2+ delta meshes for lowerLidclosedFull_angry that use different materials!!
[ W ResourceCompilerSystem ]: Morphs will not display properly for this model.
[ W ResourceCompilerSystem ]: Fix by putting the meshes using this morph name that use different materials into different dmx files.
[ W ResourceCompilerSystem ]: Doing this will tell the morph compiler that these are seperate draw calls and it will make morph renderables for only those verts.
.
.
.
[ W ModelProcessingSystem  ]: Warning! Morph Compiler: Cannot load morph data from d:/gry/steam/steamapps/common/dota 2 beta/content/dota_addons/usermod_dota/_rocky/dota/rocky_clean.vmorf!

this doesn't affect morphs at all, at least for me